straight razor

[darxus]

I ordered a carbon (not stainless) steel straight razor made by Dovo in Solingen. I used it for the first time last night. Bringing that blade to my flesh for the first time was more scary than I expected. I achieved a terrible shave, and only one tiny nick. I'm happy, I expected this to take practice. I strongly recommend hitting youtube before trying this.

Another thing I've been wanting to try for years off the list.
Yes, I'm coating it with mineral oil after each use, have a strop, and watched a video on that too.

I totally blame Fahrenheit 451 and Snow Crash.

Comments

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

A lot of blades come 'sharpened' but all that means is that they did a cursory pass. A strop only de-burrs (just like the sharpening steels for knives)

My very expensive wood chisels worked like crap out of the box. I sharpened them on my 1000 grit water wheel and now I can shave transparent shavings off a block of wood.

It may be that the blade needs to be finished sharpened on a oil/whetstone first to be really sharp.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

The blade didn't seem to be lacking in sharpness at all, I was just very awkward with it. But I'll pay more attention to that in case it isn't appropriately sharp, thanks.